If you’re serious about social media, there’s a good chance that you devote a little time to perusing the shortlist of Shorty Award nominees when they’re announced each spring. We certainly do.
In the dozen years since the Shortys started, we’ve been inspired by campaigns touching on everything from storytelling to TikToking, hospitality to healthcare — and nearly 150 additional categories. Winners have included luminaries like Trevor Noah and Greta Thunberg, companies like MTV and AT&T, and values-driven campaigns by organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the Human Rights Campaign. All told, the Shortys provide us a powerful reminder of the potential of social media to connect us and to project our voices on a global, digital stage.
Given our fondness for the Shortys, we’re especially honored to be included in this year’s list of nominees in the education category for our work with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy (BBF), one of the nation’s leaders in combating low literacy and advocating for literacy access for all. By helping BBF evolve its story, enhance its offerings, and amplify its presence online and on social, we helped the foundation reach new audiences and achieve greater impacts — efforts that led Forbes to dub BBF (along with 37 other organizations including Microsoft, Google, and LinkedIn) a “Coronavirus Champion” for its leadership in uncertain times.
You can explore the full details of our BBF work and nomination on the Shorty website. If you like what you see, please take a moment to vote. (Registration is simple.) You can cast a vote in each category once per day, so if you’re feeling ambitious, swing back tomorrow (and the day or two after that) to celebrate our work — and, more importantly, to champion the amazing strides that BBF is taking day in and day out to tackle low literacy in America.